


A Small Family is no Easier than a Large One

by EffulgentUnicorn



Category: Defiance (TV)
Genre: Gen, Less-apocalyptic AU, Season 3 Spoilers, Single dad Alak, Single parent Alak, single dad, single parent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-05 02:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4162500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EffulgentUnicorn/pseuds/EffulgentUnicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alak has to adjust to being a single dad and basically has no idea what to do. Grandma Pilar seems at least somewhat helpful most of the time, but is she really?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Whiplash

Sometimes everything changes so suddenly that you can’t keep up with it, you can’t even watch it happen. In the blink of an eye everything you once knew can be gone and you have no idea what to do with what is left. Sometimes it all happens so fast that you don’t even see it happen, and all you get to do is adjust afterward. As such, Alak Tarr’s life changed suddenly and drastically. Although he didn’t want to have to adjust to the aftermath of losing nearly everything he did take the opportunity to make another adjustment that had been a long time coming. Which was how he found himself sitting in the middle of a newly rented, mostly empty apartment in the suburbs of Defiance.

The only thing unpacked was the crib that Luke was sleeping in (and thank Rayetso that he was actually sleeping for once). Aside from that, there were three large suitcases strewn haphazardly around the small living room, a pastel blue diaper bag placed neatly next to Luke’s crib, and Alak, perhaps simultaneously the most pulled together and most torn apart aspect of the room. He cross-legged in the middle of the room with his head in his hands, pale hair draping into a curtain around his face, which he found calming, it was like a blinding snowstorm that would keep him cold enough to forget his despair. It was like a blank white slate that reminded him to keep his mind empty or face the sea of emotions he felt, threatening to drown him. Yet he kept his attention focused singularly on Luke’s crib. He had little idea what to do with him but was determined to keep the last little piece of his world intact. Alak’s fingers dug into his scalp and his face scrunched like he could physically prevent the wave of despair from breaking in his mind. Just 48 hours ago everything was… far from perfect;

_The tension in the air was almost suffocating Alak as he had leaned calmly against the wall in the living room of the small house that Pilar had been living in. It was on the very edge of town, the part that had been hit hardest and repaired the least when the Votan arrived. As such, the ragged gray-brown couch covered in frayed knitted blankets that had seen better days, the faded paintings of cities from all around Earth in their pre-incident forms, and the dusty blinds that barely covered the windows were fitting. The Castithan eyed the woman with as much of a level suspicion as he could manage. Sure, she was Christie’s mother, but she had arrived so suddenly and her… methods hadn’t presented her as the most trustworthy person._

_Pilar fretted around the room, straightening this and using only her hands to dust off that, and Alak wondered how she moved so freely through the stifling tension. She was unorganized, that was obvious enough, but she wasn’t as scattered as she could seem. Not much earlier she had convinced Alak and Christie to bring Luke with them for a car ride with her without telling them where they were going. Alak had assumed that they were just riding around to talk, catch up, and would end up back where they started. That had not been the case, however, and so the four of them were in Pilar’s house. Quentin had lunch cooking and it was enough food to feed twice the amount of people currently in the house. This was not a spur of the moment idea, it was a thought out plan._

_However, the disorganization continued and shortly after they got there Quentin shouted from the kitchen, “Ma! Where is your garlic?”_

_Pilar got up from the couch, where she had been conversing with Christie, occasionally drawing a forced reply from Alak, and headed to help her child with lunch. “It should be on the hook by the cabinet.”_

_“Well it’s not and you’re out of sauce too. We could do without the garlic but we kind of need the sauce,” Quentin retorted._

_“I’ll go pick some up!” Alak found himself saying, desperate to get away from the forced conversation for a while._

_“Oh, but Alak, dear,” Pilar said as she emerged from the kitchen once again, “I’ve hardly heard anything from you today! I want to get to know you more. Besides, do you know how to get to the store from here?”_

_“_ _It can’t be hard to find,” Alak mumbled, feeling as though the room was shrinking around him. He could already feel the chains that Pilar’s words had locked around him._

_“Christie knows the way, don’t you?” Pilar asked._

_“Of course. And I’m sure that Luke would like to get some fresh air,” Christie answered with a half-forced smile. She had probably been happy to escape the impromptu interrogation for as short an amount of time as a trip to the grocery store would allow. Yet Alak guessed that she wasn’t entirely comfortable leaving him alone with her mother. And he knew that she wasn’t thrilled with being told what to do. Probably both reasons she was bringing Luke with, too._

_“Great, you can take the stroller,” concluded Pilar. That was all it took for the plan to spring into action. Though Pilar had said that she wanted Alak to stay so she could talk to him the whole house was silent from the time Christie shut the door behind her. Alak could hear whatever Quentin was cooking bubbling on the stove. He sighed loudly and spread his arms across the back of the couch. Even though the store was apparently close it could be a while and he might as well be comfortable._

_Just a few minutes later, as Alak was already beginning to doze off, a minivan pulled into the short driveway in front of the house._

_“_ _That’ll be Rafe. And Stahma and Datak,” Pilar muttered as she left the kitchen and shambled across the living room to the door._

_“Wonderful, lunch with the whole family. At least they knew what they were getting into…” Alak said, his filter lowered by the fact that he was half asleep._

_“What was that?” Quentin asked from the kitchen._

_“_ _Nothing,” Alak half shouted._

_Pilar re-appeared from the doorway without any additional family members. Alak narrowed his eyes and turned his head slightly to one side._

_“They’re going to pick up Christie and Luke from the store,” Pilar said sharply, as though she had interpreted Alak’s question as more hostile than he had meant it. Okay, it might have looked as hostile as she had interpreted it. Christie did always say that he was, what was the word… sassy._

_Quentin appeared from the kitchen. “Have they left yet? We’re short yet more ingredients. Why can’t you properly stock your kitchen?” “You might be able to catch them if you stop wasting time bitching at me,” Pilar told him. He took off in a jog that seemed far too fast compared to the size of the room he was crossing, but must have made it to the car in time, as ten minutes passed and he didn’t return. Which, unfortunately, left just Alak and Pilar._

He had been trapped in a house alone with his mother-in-law, Pilar, but had things not gone horribly wrong he would have been set free from that sheer awkwardness as soon as the rest of the family returned. But they never did.

_“Alak?” Stahma’s voice came thinly over the phone. It had been much longer than it should have taken to get to the grocery store and back. Pilar had had to shut off all of the cooking Quentin had left going._

_“What is taking so long?” Alak questioned, his patience frayed by the fact that Pilar had kept him there saying she had wanted to talk to him and then saying nothing the entire time._

_“I’m afraid-” Stahma’s voice wavered. Wait, was she crying? Whatever was going on it had shaken Stahma. Alak couldn’t think of a time he’d seen anything shake his mother. Datak would come close frequently, but she sounded actually shaken. “I’m afraid I have horrible news…”_

_Alak’s entire body went numb as he listened. He was half sure that he’d turned to stone. He heard Stahma say his name as though she was done with this horrifying tale and checking to see if he was still there and immediately slammed his phone shut, ending the call, and whipped it at the wall. Pilar crossed the room, closing the distance between the two of them, but if she hadn’t been able to hear what Stahma had said, Alak wasn’t going to repeat it._

Stahma and Datak had been his parents when they left with Rafe and Quentin to pick up Christie and little Luke. Had Datak been the one behind the wheel Alak would have some sort of clarity as to what had happened. Datak was a ruthless driver just as he was ruthless in everything that he did. But Stahma had been driving and Alak was left completely without answers.

_How could she have let this happen? She was always icy and calm and in control. When she was in control things didn’t just happen, she made things---_ the thought was too painful to finish.

When they returned they were no longer his family. The only good news that they brought was that the time Christie had “wasted” making sure Luke’s car seat was perfectly fastened into the car wasn’t actually time wasted. _“She just kept...fiddling with it. It was probably perfect the first time, but no, she wasted a whole ten minutes making sure it was perfect enough,” Datak had ranted as Alak held Luke as close as he could, determined to never let go of his child again, and wishing he could burn holes in Datak with his eyes._

_“Datak,” Stahma hissed. He looked between them with an expression that said he thought he could do and had done no wrong, but the conversation ended there._

Six family members had been in that car when it crashed, now all but one were dead to Alak or actually dead.

Dead.

Gone.

The swirling storm of despair inside Alak’s mind began to spill over as actual, physical tears. His beloved Christie was dead and gone and the rest of her family along with her all thanks to the woman he had once called his mother. The only family Alak had left was Christie’s son.

Suddenly there was a knocking sound on the door.

_Great_. And Pilar. It wasn’t easy to forget that Pilar existed. Unsure how he’d done just that, Alak pulled himself back into the present with a preparatory eye roll so strong that it almost managed to vacuum the tears back inside his face. He gathered himself up off the floor, physically, and tried to do the same mentally on his way over to the door.


	2. Testing the Waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pilar is frustrating and Alak is confused.

“Do you really have to criticize everything that I do?”

“Nothing’s even unpacked! This place is a mess, what are you even doing?”  
“I just got here. And how can it be a mess if nothing is unpacked?” Alak struggled to keep his voice quiet against the barrage of critiques that Pilar had sent at him from the second he opened the door. As much as he wanted to raise his voice to defend himself he wanted even more to make sure that he didn’t wake Luke. “You can’t even say hi when you show up uninvited?” He settled for throwing a returning criticism at Pilar with a sarcastic smile and open arms, as though offering a welcoming hug.

Pilar’s eyes narrowed before she rolled them and shook her head. “Enough with the snark, Alak. You have a child that has to be taken care of, if you hadn’t noticed.”

Alak’s jaw tightened defensively at the implication that he hadn’t been giving every ounce of his attention that he could to his son. “He’s asleep right now, if you hadn’t noticed. Try not to wake him,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

Pilar glanced over at Luke’s crib and instantly melted, a smile spread across her face, probably the first Alak had seen since the accident. She skittered across the room to stand next to her grandchild. Alak stalked after her, his movements tense, to make sure she behaved properly.

“Of course. He sleeps like a little bear,” Pilar muttered as she watched the infant fondly.

Alak tried to keep his eyes on Pilar, but dared just a glance at baby Luke. And it hurt. His son was half human and half Castithan. Half Christie and half himself. And it was unmistakable. Tiny Castithan eyes, pale and bright, peered out of an unmistakably human beige shade of skin, so very reminiscent of Christie’s skin. When Luke slept his Castithan eyes were hidden and all Alak could see was Christie’s contributions to their son and all he could feel was the pain of losing her over and over again with every glance. Alak wished that it would stop hurting to look at his own damn son. It worried him that this might affect his ability to be everything that Luke needed, that Luke deserved. Because Luke deserved the whole universe and how could Alak give that to him if it hurt to even look at the child? Forcing his fears from his mind before they consumed him in front of Pilar, Alak tore his eyes away from Luke to look back up at her. He breathed deeply for a bit as he reassured himself that he would do everything he could for his son and not let anything get in his way.

Moments after Alak had fixed his gaze on Pilar her head snapped up as though she had sensed it. They made eye contact and neither looked away for what seemed to Alak like an inordinate amount of time. Pilar’s gaze was basically unreadable. Alak wondered if she was as afraid of what would happen in the next few weeks as he was, if she was grieving in similar ways or if it was completely different for her, how was she handling it? They were both left only with Luke as far as family went. Technically they had each other but at least to Alak it felt that it was only a technicality, it was only that each of them had a connection to Luke that held them together. He wondered if Pilar felt the same.

Even if her gaze gave nothing away about Pilar other things about her did. Alak had noticed almost as soon as she entered the apartment that she was wearing a pair of Rafe’s boots. Her hair looked as tangled as Alak’s emotions and he hoped that his own hair hadn’t gotten that unruly over the past, what, day and a half?

Pilar was the one to finally break both the exchanged stare and the silence. “So,” she said in a very even tone, “show me how you get a bottle ready for him.”

Alak stared at her a little longer in confusion. “He’s asleep. He doesn’t need to eat right now. I’m not waking him up to feed him at this hour. _And neither are you._ ”

“Good observation, genius,” Pilar snarked, “you can tell when he’s not hungry. The trick isn’t knowing when he’s not hungry or not tired or doesn’t want something, it’s knowing when he does. I don’t want to see you do it because he needs it though. I just need to know that you can take proper care of my grandson when you need to.”

Alak continued staring at her, slack jawed. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Well, I’m not,” she replied, “show me how you make a bottle for him.”

Alak’s eyes narrowed, he had no doubt that she was serious about her request but he wasn’t sure he was going to give her the satisfaction of coming into his house and telling him to prove to her that he could raise his own son.

“I’m sure that if you can’t figure it out Lukie could come stay with someone who does know these things. I happen to know these things,” Pilar said as though the idea was just coming to her in that very moment.

Alak scoffed. “Yeah, okay, I’ll play your game for a minute. Then you’re going to leave my house and not come back without an invitation.” He stalked over to the diaper bag at the side of Luke’s crib and hauled it over to the kitchen. Setting it on the countertop he opened it cautiously. He’d seen Christie do this before. He knew what to do. It just wasn’t an automatic reflex yet like he was sure that Pilar would want to see from him.

He went straight to the side pocket to pull out an empty bottle, but had to rummage in the main pocket for the canister of formula. Christie had packed the diaper bag, how was he supposed to know exactly where everything was? Pilar inhaled as though she was about to comment just as Alak wrapped his hand around the formula and pulled it out. He shot her a glance that said ‘see, I know exactly what I’m doing,’ before he began to read the instructions on the canister.

“Just mix it up, you shouldn’t have to read the--”

“Okay, that’s it, leave.” Alak stopped just short of slamming the canister on the counter top, a noise that would have almost certainly woken Luke. He pointed to the door. “You have overstayed your welcome, Pilar. Go.”

There was a tense moment in which Alak tried to hold the fire in his gaze rather than show any signs of uncertainty, but he was uncertain. Pilar hadn’t seemed like one who would be taken at any less than the highest authority of what was best for Luke. She was still unreadable, which was why Alak was startled and almost jumped when she turned towards the door.

“I don’t mean to impose,” she said, waving a hand, a gesture and tone that Alak was almost sure were hiding something. “I will see myself out. And I will see you in a day or two.”

“You’ll see us when I invite you,” Alak said coldly as she crossed the room. It didn’t take her very long due to it’s size. When she got to the door she turned around, Alak assumed so that the line she delivered next would have its maximum effect on him.

“You wouldn’t keep his only grandma out of Luke’s life like that, would you?”

And with that she stepped out the door and was gone. Alak rolled his eyes and… stepped lightly, not stomped, even though he was really feeling the later, across the room and locked the door behind her. He resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall next to the door. Instead he set out to make a bed for himself, not bothering to do so in the bedroom, but tearing into one of the suitcases and pulling out a few blankets and a pillow and making a nest in the corner nearest to Luke’s crib, between the baby and the door, just in case. He shut off the lights before curling up in the nest of blankets still wearing his clothes. That was easier than digging through the other two suitcases looking for something more comfortable.

Before he went to sleep, which he wasn’t even sure that he would be able to do anyways, Alak checked his phone for messages. There was a voice mail from a number that he didn’t have stored in his contacts. He dialed the number for his answering machine and sat impatiently through the date and time the message had been sent before getting to its actual content.

When the message played Alak froze. It was Datak’s voice on the recording.

“Alak? We’re home. Why aren’t you?”

“It’s not the same without you here,” Stahma’s voice came in from the background.

Alak couldn’t believe that they had the audacity to call him, let alone leave a message that started out like that. He slammed the phone shut, not caring if there was anything else or what they had to say, and burrowed himself into the blankets. If he had doubted that he would sleep before listening to that he was sure that he wouldn’t now. But he needed to. Needed to at least try, because when your baby is sleeping is the best, and likely only, time you have to sleep, and Alak needed to be awake when Luke needed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating as frequently as I had planned. I haven't been able to watch the new episodes as consistently as I would like to and I have a lot going last week/this week/next week. I'm still trying to keep up with this, it might just be a little later than expected.


	3. Off the Deep End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when Alak was at the end of his rope, an explosive event in town makes matters even worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for any persisting typos of spelling Alak as Alan (or other character name misspellings). I started typing on my tablet and it wouldn't let me add it to the dictionary. I tried to re-read and get them all, but no guarantees that I did.

A tremendously loud noise rattled the apartment building and shook and shocked Alak awake. Barely beginning to register what was going on, he considered the fact that the noise sounded like backlash for all of the quietness he had cultivated the previous night to make sure Luke's sleep wasn't disturbed. He threw a glance at the clock on the front of his phone. 5:19, great. He continued considering the idea that the shaking that came along with the noise had felt as though it was payback for every single effort the night before, all stored up and released at exactly this moment. At this train of thought, as if cued by the thoughts themselves, Luke began to cry. It was a high pitched sound that both pierced Alak and comforted him. The sound conveying both that Luke was still wholly real and alive, but also that he was not content in that moment.

Instantly, Alak crossed the short distance between the nest he had built in the corner of the room and the crib where his son had been sleeping up until a few moments ago. He picked up the infant and cradled him gently in his arms.

"Luke, shhhh, it's okay," he murmured, but his efforts to calm the child once again were mostly thwarted by the fact that the whole city was suddenly alive with noise. Shouting could be heard from outside in every direction and Alak was relatively certain that he could hear the awkward squawk of what qualified as sirens in Defiance off in the distance, in the direction of the center of town.

_There's no way that can be good_ , he thought to himself, not vocalizing his fears as not to worry Luke. It vaguely crossed his mind that Luke wouldn't be able to understand him if he had spoken the thought aloud. Curiosity was starting to get the better of Alak. Something was up and he wanted to know what it was. He carried Luke into the bedroom, hoping to get a glimpse of the cause of the commotion from the window facing in that direction. He bounced Luke gently in his arms as he peered out the window. This window would have been largely unhelpful, the view from obscured by nearby buildings and assorted foliage, if the cause of the commotion hadn't been the tallest thing in Defiance, easily visible above everything, near the top of the window.

"Oh," Alak said out loud, "the arch is on fire," as though it was as normal of an observation as a weather event like rain. "Well shtocko, that's definitely not something you see every day," he continued, the curse from habit more so than from worry. "From the looks of it," he continued, slowly starting to wear through the early morning dreariness and sudden confusion to realize that something big was actually going on, "the top part of the arch is... gone."

Alak stood completely frozen as this realization sunk in. He stared out the window,  face a blank combination of lingering tiredness, confusion, and inability to process what exactly this meant. He had stopped gently bouncing Luke in his arms, but Luke didn't seem to mind much. He shared his father's silence even as the chaos and noise in the city continued to rise. The pair were at an eerie contrast with the rest of Defiance. Alak realized this after a minute or so and began to move again due to the discomfort he was beginning to feel.

He should probably head in to town to see what was going on, to see if the radio would be able to continue broadcasting, to see what had caused this. The arch was an ever looming presence in the town of Defiance and, while many people probably took it for granted in their everyday lives, it meant quite a bit to the town. Alak could feel a growing emptiness as he adjusted his thought to the loss. Well, part of the arch was still there, most of it actually, and he had never seen it as a whole structure as it had once been when the place was St. Louis. Still, the arch had always been a complete incomplete. Now it was...

Luke was silently watching Alak from his arms, his eyes bright and focused attentively on his father, as if he was wondering what Alak would choose to do next. He couldn't leave the baby at the apartment, it was probably not a good parenting decision, he didn't want to let Luke out of his sight ever again, and he knew in the back of his mind that Pilar would take the commotion as an opportunity to catch Alak doing just that. So he dug through two of the suitcases until he found and grabbed the baby carrier and strapped Luke to his chest. Luke smiled and giggled, excited to be going somewhere, Alak assumed. He usually liked being in the carrier because it meant that the whole family was going somewhere...

_Or that's what it had meant_ , the thought stung Alak’s mind and he shook his head to clear it. That was not what he needed to be thinking about right now. If Luke could continue to smile, so could he. At least when he was going out in public. Probably.

Alak turned his attention to preparing to get out and see what was going on. He contemplated what he would need to bring and he realized that he had very little idea of what he would need. So he grabbed the whole diaper bag from where it sat on the countertop, slung it over one shoulder, and tucked the strap comfortably behind the back of Luke's carrier.

On his way across town Alak tried his best to ignore the fact that the strange looks he was seeing on peoples’ faces were probably meant for him. He had to admit that while the powder blue diaper bag probably didn’t clash too much with his jean jacket, the baby carrier was likely a different story… and he didn’t doubt that the combination warranted at least a few of the looks that he was getting, which only intensified as he approached the commotion. Most of the town was there, and most of the town hadn’t seen him since the accident. And apparently Alak was more interesting than the burning arch because even in the midst of that catastrophe people managed to drag their gazes from the flames to look at the other hot mess in town, Alak.

Quickly growing tired of it, Alak rolled his eyes and proceeded to stare back at every single person who had decided to make him the early morning’s spectacle. After a handful of staring contests with Alak emerging victorious the rest of the crowd began to get the message and turned their attention back to the arch. This proved very fortunate, as the last pair of eyes that Alak turned to were those of Datak. Alak lost all semblance of composure as his eyes flicked back and forth between his former parents as they stood across the crowd. Unwilling to allow them to approach himself and Luke, Alak jumped, fully prepared to start running, but then stopped himself, not wanting to jostle Luke in his harness. Instead, he walked off stiffly, skirting along the edge of the crowd, away from the pair, mentally kicking himself for that very ungraceful exit.

Short on time to be hard on himself, Alak found himself face to face with Pilar not moments later.

“Nice playground, Alak. You sure know how to pick safe places for your kid.”

Alak rolled his head along with his eyes, partially to show Pilar exactly how done with this day he already was so early in the morning, and partially to check if Stahma and Datak had followed him. They hadn’t. Thank Rayetso.

“Pilar, I really don’t have time for your shtocko right now, can’t you see that the arch is on fire?” His words sounded every bit as harsh as he had meant them but also raked across his throat as the sea of emotions began to churn within him again.

Pilar nodded emphatically. “I can. And so can Luke, because you’ve brought him so close to this dangerous situat--”

“Yeah, great,” Alak cut her off, “like I said, I don’t have time. Because that arch was my job. That job was how I was going to care for my child. And my child deserves the word and--”

“Yes, he does,” Pilar said, suddenly stone faced, “and if it doesn’t seem like you can give him that… or even close to that, then maybe--”

“How are things going over here?” A voice Alak had never been happier to hear stopped Pilar’s dangerous train of thought from escaping her mouth. A signature cocky Nolan smile followed shortly behind it as the former Lawkeeper calmly stepped in and blocked Alak’s increasingly frightened face from Pilar’s view. Alak turned away in order to hide from her just a little bit more. He hadn’t meant to spill every fear to Pilar that he had hardly even realized had been building up inside his mind. He was registering what he had said much slower than she had. And her reply was just now starting to send a chill to his heart. His arms reflexively wrapped around Luke at his chest.

“Pilar, if you could let me talk to Alak for a minute, alone, that would be stupendous,” Alak could vaguely hear Nolan over his own swirling thoughts.

“Sure,” she nodded to Nolan, “as long as he remembers--”

“Alone, Pilar. Now.” Nolan’s word was final.

As Pilar reluctantly melted into the crowd Alak shot Nolan a fierce glare that was correctly received as gratitude.

“So, kid, you’re not wrong about the job thing. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the radio station is gone now,” Nolan said, turning in Alak’s general direction.

“Well I’m glad you were able to figure it out anyways,” Alak shot back.

A frown lept to Nolan’s face at that reply, but his gaze stayed level. From the corner of his eye Alak could see Irisa staring just as intently at him.

“What’s with the in- _stare_ -ogation?” Alak asked, suddenly trying very hard to stay in control. He shifted his gaze to Irisa who, as it turned out, was actually looking at Luke. Alak promptly turned his body away from her, pulling Luke out of her line of sight and placing him squarely in front of Nolan again. “What?” he glared, almost as desperate for this interaction to end as any other he had had that day.

Nolan continued to hold a level gaze with him. “Okay kid, good luck looking for another job. If you need any help I could--”

“Yeah, I got it,” Alak said, turning to go, far more than ready to go back to sleep for the rest of the day and knowing that that was about the last thing he could do. So what were offers of sympathy? Empty words, that’s what. Alak was action. He would do what he needed to and he couldn’t do it here.

Through the crowd Alak could barely hear the tail of a conversation thought to be out of his range of hearing.

“...Could have offered more help,” Irisa hissed.

“He doesn’t want help right now. If he wants it later then we could--”

“But he’s a baby,” Irisa insisted.

Nolan’s answering sigh sounded as exasperated as Alak felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, sorry for that pun.
> 
> Second of all, sorry that it's been like a month since I updated. Have the thing. I'm off work now, though, so hopefully I'll get around to writing more (also we're getting into the ~*plot*~ so it should be easier to plan chapters once I figure out how a few elements from the show are going to fit in!)

**Author's Note:**

> A note about the less-apocalyptic AU:  
> I haven't figured out the exact details of what happened or how Defiance came to be, and honestly I'm not sure I will. But the Votan showed up and now Defiance is Defiance, more put together than it is in the show, but definitely not St. Louis. Sorry if you really want a background to that, I might work it out I might not. I just wanted to jump in with confused single dad Alak and this is how I was comfortable writing it.
> 
> Also, I'm open to other title suggestions...


End file.
